Do freshwater shrimp eat leftover food,

[George9]

Will a cherry shrimp eat leftover flakes, pellets, or brine shrimp at the bottom of the tank?

 

[smarsh7903]

Yes they will scavenge just about everything

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[BigJim]

Within reason, yes.

 

[siva]

I do not find them to be very effective scavengers but still very cool

 

[beepboop]

My ghost shrimp eat everything left over and clean up quite well. Not sure about cherry shrimp.

 

[fort384]

RCS will eat just about anything as well. However, I wouldn't rely on them much for doing actual "tank maintenance". Adding bioload of any kind to a tank is not necessarily a good way to keep a tank cleaned up. The key is doing regular PWCs, and using a gravel vac to clean up the gravel. If there is noticeable amounts of food lying on the bottom, my guess would be you are feeding too much.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I was going to say... there shouldn't be any leftover food. If there is, you need to change something, whether its feeding, gravel vac'ing, or something.

 

[George9]

I have a gourami and a couple barbs, would they eat the shrimp

 

[mudraker]

Probably

 

[George9]

I was going to say... there shouldn't be any leftover food. If there is, you need to change something, whether its feeding, gravel vac'ing, or something.

I do water changes every two days, I'll be fine.

 

[mandy2936]

I have a gourami and a couple barbs, would they eat the shrimp

I'd have to say yes on that one...
I was considering putting RCS in my 20g Community tank. When I looked at the RCS at my LFS, I couldn't believe at how tiny they actually are! I guess I never realized how small an inch really is.
Anyways, after seeing them person, I've come to the conclusion that my Rios and even Guppies could gobble them right up.

So, I'm assuming that your Gourami and Tiger Barbs would probably do the same, but they might not. It's really up to you if you want to take a chance. Something that a lot of people do is breed RCS. If you really want them, you can start a colony in hopes to sustain enough at a time if your fish snack on them.

I personally don't do this because 1. I only wanted a few, not a colony. And 2. I don't like the thought of my little shrimps getting eaten, but hey, everyone feels differently about that.

Hope this helps!!

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[siva]

My dwarf gourami doesn't bother my shrimp. Don't know about barbs though, test them with some cheap ghost shrimp before buying spendy ones

 

[mfdrookie516]

FWIW, my kerri tetras demolished my RCS. I put 30+ in my tank the other day, they ate every single one of them. And these tetras are small.

 

[Fdsh5]

I can tell you first hand that the tiger barbs will dine on the shrimp. The even love the baby snails I pull out of other tanks and drop in there. My opaline gourami destroyed ten ghost shrimp in one night too. That could just be mine though. I would have to say +1 on the ghost shrimp as a trial. Cheap and if they eat them, they're fed for the day.

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[cwt]

My krib eats any and all RCS which I toss into its tank. My rainbowfish will peck at shrimp and eat the remains when they're done playing with it... otherwise, I haven't had really any shrimp eaters in my tanks. Never see my guppies go after them.

If you are concerned about keeping them safe, offer plenty of hiding space... java fern, java moss, other plant cover. Despite the rainbowfish tendency to chase them, I have RCS in their tank and the RCS do a good enough job of hiding to stay alive. Most of the time ;0

as to the original question, yes, RCS will clean up whatever food they find lying around the tank, although they will not make a dent in algae as far as I can tell. Like others said, too much food ultimately equals waste of some sort in the tank over the long run.